Makro workers to start 10-day strike

Thousands of Makro workers are expected to down tools in a 10-day national strike starting on Friday after their trade union and management reached a deadlock in a bitter wage dispute that has dragged on for months.

SA Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) spokesperson Sithembele Tshwete said on Thursday that “100% of members” — more than 5,000 staff balloted — had voted in support of the strike, while a further 10,000 sympathy strikers would join after repeated attempts to negotiate for a 12% wage settlement and a “no retrenchment” policy in the next two years had failed.

However, Massmart Holdings spokesperson Brian Leroni said the firm was not concerned about the strike and had contingency plans to deal with the industrial action. Massmart is fully owned by US retailer Walmart and owns Makro as well as Game and Builders Warehouse.

“The union is disorganised and we are well geared to deal with the strike. Makro has an exceptionally well-trained team of backup staff who have gained valuable experience and confidence as a result of Saccawu’s repeated strike action during the past four months,” Leroni said.

“We do not anticipate trading disruption in the event of Saccawu’s further strike action and will, in line with our recent experience, likely see an increase in productivity,” he said.

Leroni said that Saccawu had not conducted a strike ballot at Makro.

“The union started the strike balloting process last year but did not complete it. The primary reason was that three out of the first four stores to conduct a strike ballot were not supportive of strike action. At this point the union abandoned the strike ballot,” Leroni said.

“On average around 35% of Saccawu’s unionised members at Makro have been proactive participants in the current strike. Just under 1,000 staff members have resigned from the union to accept the group-wide job offer of 4.5% plus back pay.”

Leroni said Saccawu members had agreed to a wage settlement of 4.5% at Builders Warehouse, the group’s top-performing division, and at Game. That was the increase awarded to all employees across the group. However, he said Makro shop stewards had rejected the offer.

“Interestingly, Makro has received an 8% average increase for the past three years. Our current reality is that in the context of our financial performance we cannot afford more than 4.5% and also preserve jobs,” Leroni said.

“It’s clear that Saccawu is intent on pushing the parties further apart rather than on trying to find common ground. This appears to be the result of infighting within the union and is consistent with the incoherent and bad-faith approach that the union has taken throughout the 2022 negotiation process.”

He said the union recently brought new demands to the negotiating table, including one for “no retrenchments” for the next two years.

“Because we have closed the 2022 negotiation cycle all these demands will now be handled in the 2023 wage negotiation cycle, which begins in March. We will process 2022 increases plus back pay for Makro employees who choose to accept the company offer rather than to rely on Saccawu’s ability to reach a settlement. Many union members have come to this conclusion and we estimate that close to 1,000 union members have resigned from the union to accept the company offer.”

However, Tshwete denied this, saying that “all our members balloted for the strike — 100%, or all 5,000” at Makro.  The union had not received any notices of resignation from members.

“We have more than 5,000 workers who will strike but more than 10,000 workers who work in the Massmart group will join in sympathy. We have been speaking to them throughout and they have given us their word they will join the strike,” Tshwete said.

“The employer is busy with intimidation tactics. They want them to accept the 4.5% increase which is not at the negotiating table and which is on condition that they resign from the union first. No-one has agreed. No-one has resigned from the union at Makro, that would have been very obvious now.”

Tshwete said: “Lawyers are placed to conduct negotiations with a litigating mind of ‘either you take this or we are going to court’.

“This is not only about wages, it is a fight for the union to preserve the rights that many workers have shed their blood for. They are resolved they want to break the backbone of the union,” he said.

“We asked the CCMA for a relationship-building exercise and they concurred because the nature of relations between the company and the union is undesirable to negotiate but they [Massmart] actually put up their middle finger,” Tshwete said.